Written and edited by Norm Scott:
EDUCATE! ORGANIZE!! MOBILIZE!!!
Three pillars of The Resistance – providing information on current ed issues, organizing activities around fighting for public education in NYC and beyond and exposing the motives behind the education deformers. We link up with bands of resisters. Nothing will change unless WE ALL GET INVOLVED IN THE STRUGGLE!

Saturday, July 14, 2012

Walcott Offers Credit Recovery and Instant Graduation to Students Who Write a Report Showing 100% Grad Rate Under Bloomberg Tenure

Whom do you believe? Me or your own lying eyes? -- Diane Ravitch

Walcott says high school students could have written a more credible
report than the I.B.O. He says the report's methodology is faulty and
inaccurate. ----WABC

The usual narrative from the city is that student achievement has
significantly and steadily improved under Mayor Bloomberg, but the
report by the Independent Budget Office has a different story to tell.... According to the I.B.O. report on student achievement of selected
students tracked over several years, 62 per cent were found to show no
improvement between 3rd and 8th grade, while only 30 per cent improved,
and 8 per cent lost ground.... The city often points to narrowing the achievement gap between black and
Hispanic students and white students, but the I.B.O. report reads: "The
findings for this cohort of students indicate little evidence of a
narrowing achievement gap." --- WABC

Keep stirring the pot and DOE will overreact in ways that often come
crashing on City Hall and Tweed. Listen carefully to their words on testing. It's the sound of a house
of cards falling down. ----Fred Smith

------- How can the DOE say that you can't use the state tests to compare individual students year to year, BUT you can use the same tests of students to evaluate teachers from one year to the next??? Lisa North
--------

Fred: how can we trust any trend line derived from the state tests given
the test score inflation and overall unreliability of the exams over
this period? And aren't proficiency levels even less truatworthy as they
are set by the cut scores which are easy to manipulate and were indeed
manipulated as we know by NYSED? -- Leonie Haimson
--------

Leonie:

Based on the record, I don't have faith in the tests, the test makers, SED
and the reporting and use of the exam results for students, teachers,
principals and schools. Did I leave anything out?

Let's focus on the floating cut scores, which are set on the basis of
expediency (aka other considerations). Political and budgetary
factors weigh into the decision about where to place the cutoff point. Raw
score distributions are transformed into scale score distributions. Even
when (2006-2009) a scale score of 650 was established as
the point required to reach proficiency--there was nothing constant
about the score needed to demonstrate that a child "meets state learning
standards" because of the factors you cite and the other considerations that
entered the determination about where the passing bar should go.

Then a four-point performance level scale was imposed on top of
that structure, with three cutoff points dividing the raw score
distribution into four parts. As you know, the Level 2 / Level 3 split
separated kids who were proficient from those who were improficient (i.e.,
partially met the learning standards). The Level 1/ Level 2 split delineated
those who were eligible to be held back in New York City, while merely labeling
the Level 1s in the rest of the state as having serious academic
problems. There who reached Level 4 were deemed to meet the standards
with flying colors--but the tests were never long or sensitive enough
to differentiate among kids at the high end.

The 2009 results tie this together. The cut scores were set so
obviously low that record high percentages of students were at or above Level
3. At the same time, the number of Level 1s practically disappeared,
because Level 2 could be reached by guessing--that's how low the L1 / L2 cut
point had been set. Both outcomes were good for politicians who were
running for election or re-election that year. And budget was also spared,
because with so few Level 1s, money for academic intervention services did not
have to be expended.

Chancellor Tisch did her 2009 test results press conference in a stern,
non-celebratory manner--promising more comprehensive, more rigorous, less
predictable tests and higher standards in the future--part of her educational
reform agenda. In short, no more lies. It was also a promise
not to look back and investigate how testing had become so distorted. That
would have exposed the discredited cut scores. Commissioner Richard Mills
retired shortly after the announcement and never addressed reasonable suspicions
that he had been instrumental in setting the indefensible 2009 cut scores.

But in 2010 and 2011 Tisch went with the same publisher (CTB/McGraw-Hill)
that had worked with SED's Office of Assessment to provide the statewide testing
program from 1999 forward. If the 2009 results were so unworthy, why
then did she continue to engage CTB in 2010 and extend the contract
for 2011? This is where Tisch developed her posture of decrying the
tests, scowling and saying testing couldn't continue as it had before--but
immediately nullifying her position by noting she had been reassured by the
publisher that everything was valid and the testing would go on.

And in 2011, Pearson was awarded the contract. The Pineapple King has
a 5-year ($32 million and counting) agreement to develop and bring forth the
program--getting us through the transition period leading to the common core
standards and probably beyond that to the next frontier--computerized individual
testing. This year we paid Pearson to field test items by embedding them
in the operational April test exams and in stand-alone field tests
administered last month. These items will be used on next spring's
operational statewide tests. But for several obvious reasons the field
testing was inadequate--so next year's product will be seriously
compromised.

SED is requiring Pearson to hire an "independent" investigator to look at
the problems it just encountered. What a great way to find out that everything
Pearson did was valid. But parents and the public have caught on to the
way testing has been manipulated and has come to dominate education.

Yes, in this context, score inflation, lack of reliability (especially in
scoring the open-ended items), a shrinking window of transparency,
never-ending political machinations, privatization/corporate ambitions, shielded
by an unrelenting unwillingness to have an independent investigation, make it
clear that distrust is warranted.

The picture is bleak. The hope for change lies mainly with parents,
courageous teachers and principals, but also with an enlightened union and
progressive politicians to create the critical mass needed to take back public
education and restore its central place in a democracy.

Fred

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The opinions expressed on EdNotesOnline are solely those of Norm Scott and are not to be taken as official positions (though Unity Caucus/New Action slugs will try to paint them that way) of any of the groups or organizations Norm works with: ICE, GEM, MORE, Change the Stakes, NYCORE, FIRST Lego League NYC, Rockaway Theatre Co., Active Aging, The Wave, Aliens on Earth, etc.

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UFT Election Vote Comparison: 2004-10

A Personal Historical Perspective

Why Karen Lewis Reads Ed Notes

"A Black Agenda Radio commentary by Glen Ford

What media call "philanthropy" for the public schools are actually seed monies to establish a private "market" in publicly-financed education - an enterprise worth trillions if successfully penetrated by corporate America. Cory Booker, one of the "New Black Leaders" financed by the filthy rich, is key to creating a "nationwide corporate-managed schools network paid for by public funds but run by private managers.

"Ed Reformers" want to cash in on public education and to control its content and outcome, not improve it. Provide great education? Baby boomers had as close as this country has ever gotten to it when we were growing up. The Ed Reform Movement has no interest in seeing such a well-educated, democratically astute population ever again.

History of the UFT Pre-Weingarten Years

This award-winning series of articles by Jack Schierenbeck originally appeared in the New York Teacher in 1996 and 1997.

Naturally, from a certain point of view. But, despite certain biases, Schierenbeck, a great guy, was one of the best NY Teacher reporters so this is worth reading. Jack suffered a debilitating stroke many years ago (I used to get secret donations to ed notes from him through a 3rd source.)

“The schism in the union over radical politics [is] a major reason for stalling the growth of a teacher union for decades.” Revolutionary politics and ideology take center stage, as the original Teachers Union becomes a battlefield, pitting leftist against leftist and splitting the union.

Clarence Taylor's "Reds at the Blackboard" focused on the old Teachers Union which disbanded in 1964 after suffering from anti-left attacks.

Effective Union Organizing

A video series put together by Jason Mann from the British Columbia Federation of Teachers about social media and how to use it for effective union organizing.

The first series was called New Media For Union Activists Roadmap and it's still available on-line at:http://www.newmediabootcamp.ca/welcome/I watched some of them and need to rewatch as they are loaded with information.

The second series started last week and it's called "Online Campaigning for Union Activists"

You Don't Have A Choice - Join the Revolt

Hedges says, There are no excuses left. Either you join the revolt taking place on Wall Street and in the financial districts of other cities across the country or you stand on the wrong side of history.

Ex-Harlem Success Teacher Comments on Eva the Diva

I am a former Harlem Success teacher. Not many people who work/worked for her like her very much. I once made the comment that she is very nice when I first was hired. Two of her closest colleague responded immediately almost in unison, "Eve is not nice!" Over time I realized that there was a lot of political games going on. Another colleague once said to me that he was tired of "being part of a political campaign." Sending out 15,000 applications for only 400 seats in a school is reprehensible. The money that paid for those mass mailings could have paid the yearly salary of another teacher not to mention the heartache of all those parents who applied but did not get a spot. She does good work trying to give disadvantaged students a quality public school education but at a great cost to staff AND the school's educational budget! school budget.

GEM's Julie Cavanagh Debates E4E member on NY1 on LIFO and Seniority

Davis Guggenheim Compared to Riefenstahl

“Waiting for Superman" is the second most intellectually dishonest piece of documentary work I have seen. It is surpassed only by Leni Riefenstahl's "Triumph of the Will," the pro-Hitler propaganda classic, in that regard. Uses personal narratives of adorable children to create narrative suspense that overrides public policy discussion with pure emotion in unscrupulous attack on teachers and their unions, among others

Timothy TysonProfessor of African American Studies and HistoryDuke University

A Familiar Voice on Unions

"We must close union offices, confiscate their money and put their leaders in prison. We must reduce workers salaries and take away their right to strike"- Adolf Hitler, May 2, 1933

How Teaching Experience Makes a Difference

Even as New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Michelle Rhee and others around the nation are arguing for experienced teachers to be laid off regardless of seniority, every single study shows teaching experience matters. In fact, the only two observable factors that have been found consistently to lead to higher student achievement are class size and teacher experience, so that it’s ironic that these same individuals are trying to undermine both.- Leonie Haimson on Parents Across America web site

Outsource our children

Weingarten/Gates Foundation announce drone-driven teacher evaluation

According to a press release issued by the Gates Foundation, the AFT and the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, these three have entered a ground-breaking partnership to evaluate teachers utilizing the drone technology that has revolutionized warfare in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. A bird-size device floats up to 400 feet above a classroom and instantly beams live video of teachers in action to agents at desks at Teacher Quality Inspection Stations established by the AFT and the Thomas B. Fordham Institute.

When asked if the drones were authorized to drop bombs on teachers who exhibit inadequacy, Chester E. Finn, Jr., president of the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation, replied, "Don't be ridiculous. Gates money puts other methods at our disposal."

Randi Weingarten, president of the 1.5-million-member American Federation of Teachers said the powerful union has signed on to the drone project...

Teacher Value-Added Data Dumping by Norm Scott

The Real Reason Behind Push for Standardized Tests: It's All About the Adults

On standardized testing in our schools

A must read article about the standardized test industry.Written by an insider who has worked as a test scorer, the article outlines a multinational industry based on an army of temporary workers paid by the piece at $0.30 to $0.70 per test, translated in the need to grade 40 tests per hour to make a $12 salary. The article goes on to show how the companies gauge the grading "results" based on the need to ensure new contracts to continue profiting off of our youth. The original article is from Monthly Review. Here it is on Schools Matter blog.

From Sharon Higgins

Parallels between America today and Germany in the 1920's and early 30's

"Resentment and obstruction are all the right wing in America have to peddle. Their policies are utterly discredited. Their ideology - even by its own standards - is a sham. They are so bereft of leaders, their de facto leader is a former drug addicted, thrice-divorced radio talk show host. That is literally the best they can muster. But they have built a national franchise inciting the downwardly mobile to blame the government, not the right, for their problems, exactly as Hitler did in the 1920s."

Chicago View of Unity/UFT on Charters

After many meetings and debates, the Chicago delegation succeeded in working with the New York United Federation of Teachers, Local 2 (UFT) to push the AFT to take stronger stands on charter school accountability and school closings — though many delegates from Chicago would have liked the language to have been even stronger.

Generally speaking, the New York delegation represented organizing charters as the best model for handling their role in reshaping unions, despite the fact that according to many reports few charter schools in New York have been organized as is the case in Chicago. This logic is the same touted by the Progressive Caucus of the AFT. The few that have been organized are a part of the UFT local though they have separate contracts negotiated with the help of UFT. The Chicago delegation reflection the mindset that allowing new charters to continue to proliferate while attempting to organize existing charters is an end game in which public schools and the union lose.

Ed Notes Greatest Hits: HSA Rally and Founding of GEM

Angel Gonzalez and I attended that rally and used the footage to promote our conference on Mar. 28, 2009, which is where the concept of a group like GEM emerged. Until then we had basically been a committee of ICE working with the NYCORE high stakes testing group. The actions of Eva and crew helped spawn GEM. Mommie Dearest!!

I have more video somewhere. I was hoping to get Leni Riefenstahl to edit it but she died. We would have called it "Triumph of the Hedge Fund Operators."

Video of Chicago's George Schmidt and CORE Shredding Arne Duncan and the Chicago Corporate Model

Great Post on Teacher Quality at the Morton School

I'm very tired of the myth that schools are bursting at the seams with apathetic, unskilled, surly, child-hating losers who can't get jobs doing anything else. I recently figured that, counting high school and college where one encounters many teachers in the course of a year, I had well over 100 teachers in my lifetime, and I can only say that one or two truly had no place being in a classroom.